Author(Read 13985 times)

This thread is for the benefit of people who want a little side info! Me, for example! Post your questions here, and hopefully AG will notice them and answer for us!

My first question:

1: How should nomads (and other races) react to fatebringers? Reverence? fear? understanding? And while we're on that note - is there any special way one race should react to another, or is it all varied?

Ah, how I have come to love that sense of accomplishment and victory that I get when I pull the wool over the eyes of a clever player character. What DM Triumphs have you had?

Some of mine:1. Finally killing an incredibly powerful, lucky, annoying player's character.2. Finally achieving a TPK (Total Party Kill)3. Finally achieving a TPK using only traps4. Finally working out how to make it so that d**n wizard doesn't steal the spotlight all the d**n time.

I had a rough start, too, Muro. After the third go around with it, though, I think it's almost more intuitive than your standard D&D system. Instead of having to check what percentage chance I have with 3 ranks in Climb, I just check what level I am and that is the percentage. It really makes sense for skills.

Okay, first things... last! It is easier to comment on the last three comments

2. This is an old debate. Skill based vs level based systems has been a central topic of discussion since the dawn of RPGs. As of late the glorious entry of D20 has more or less killed the skill based systems, but I am a die hard fellow.

You need to understand this: In skill based systems, especially in those where HP never increase, like this one, equipment and skill, combined with a good player, is essential for survival. No longer can your character strip himself and, butt naked, kick that dragon arse! Your character CAN accumulate skill and equipment, however, and with time and effort he might kick that dragon arse, PROVIDED he remembers to don his mechanized combat armour

And: No dragons in the game. Sorry peeps

1. First things last:Fatebringers - Fatebringers don't walk around with signs on their chest identifying them as such. Fatebringers do have red ceremonial robes, which they sometimes use during the kill, but they don't use these robes in public. Well, sometimes they do but then only to provoke fear and discomfort.

This brings us to your questions: Yes, the Fatebringers DO invoke fear and discomfort IF people know who and what they are. They seldom do. Fatebringers are tolerated among nomads, and not feared as it is against their law to kill nomads with clan status (membership in a clan). The Fatebringers do get other nomads into trouble, as some inbred local communities believe all nomads to be Fatebringers (only about 1 in 1000 actually are) and often the nomads are met by lynch mobs at the gates of a village. Since "normal" nomads get into so much trouble due to the Fatebringers, they are somewhat annoyed by them. Other people on the other hand are more distrustful towards nomads in general. Partly because they never know whether a nomad is an assassin or not, and partly because nomads consider tribals and city dwellers to be inferior folk, degenerate amoralistic wretches without meaning(people seldom like to be thought of in that way :p).

Now you know how Nomads think and are thought of, and you know that Tribals are looked down upon by city folk. Tribals themselves are as varied as they are colourful. However, it is safe to assume that there is friction between tribals and nomads, as well as between tribals and city folk and between the different tribes.

Let me put up a matrix:

Nomad

Civilized

Tribal

Nomad

Respect

Wary

Varies

Civilized

Disdain

Varies

Varies

Tribal

Disdain

Arrogance

Varies

Read the table this way: The upper row has the written feelings towards the vertical row. Thus: Civilized folk (horizontal row) are WARY towards nomads.The table should be taken for what it is: A cursory and superficial glance at cultural differences. By all means: You may find nomad loving city dwellers and nomad groups that hate each other. The setting is dynamic and complex, not a black and white set of constant rules.

Two of us are smiths. We could make some coin (do they use coinage in Bleak Wood?) by making metal jewelry, trinkets, or even weapons.

That you could. It would be a time consuming venture though, and you would need to rent a forge and buy yourselves the equipment you need. On the other hand you could try to rent your services to the Bleak Wood Smithing Engineer and perhaps earn a wage and smithing privileges.

Ammo shortage make the establishments pay their employes with "bills of credit". These bills, while not as good as ammo, will give you something to bargain with.

Apparently, we are traders. Thus, we need to know what can be traded, and what locations that supply ionteresting goods are within travelling distance.

In Bleak Wood you can purchase many things at the Bazaar:

1. Bleak Wood is known for cheap male slaves, but the women sold there are often of exceptional beauty and are on the expensive side. This makes Bleak Wood the staging area of slave caravans, and the center of the slave trade with the off planet enclaves.

2. Bleak Wood is known for fine primitive weapons such as spears, arrows, bows, crossbows and any other wooden based weapons. These weapons are of average cost, but of premium quality and are also in demand elsewhere.

3. Supply runs (food and medicine) to Outposts 14, some seven kilometers to the northeast, prove profitable. The close proximity to the River Train tribes makes those runs somewhat dangerous.

4. Drugs that are not performance enhancing are cheap in Bleak Wood, though Angelic Juice (Hallucinogenic drug / Out of body experiences / Euphoria) has recently been outlawed. In most other villages, towns and cities drugs are under stricter control than in Bleak Wood, but there is a considerable profit to be made by trafficking.

5. The Cannibal Tribes that live in the Fallen City of Karchul, about four kilometeres south into the Void, pay well for male slaves. There is an inherent risk in these runs, for merchants have a tendency not to return.

6. Steel armor and weapons made in Corona, or by some of the tribes, fetches good money in Bleak Wood.

7. Projectile weapons and ammunition is expensive all over. Scavengers that stumble upon a cache (or steal some from others) can and do fetch quite the profit.

8. Advanced weaponry and armor is by law the property of the Warden of Bleak Wood. Men have ended up in prison for trying to hide mechanized armor from him. In addition he trades slaves for technology from the space dwellers. Most merchants cannot pay for advanced armor and possessing armor or weapons of exceptional quality is more likely to get you into problems, than to raise a profit.

Question in the chat today:Q. Where do we get ammunition from?A. 1) There are ancients caches of ammunition and weapons that can be found throughout the wilderness, 2) Some of the larger enclaves produce their own ammunition, 3) The Space Dwellers sell ammunition to the Warden of Bleak Wood and rumours say that somewhere inside his building, a secret armoury can be found.

Ah, how I have come to love that sense of accomplishment and victory that I get when I pull the wool over the eyes of a clever player character. What DM Triumphs have you had?

Some of mine:1. Finally killing an incredibly powerful, lucky, annoying player's character.2. Finally achieving a TPK (Total Party Kill)3. Finally achieving a TPK using only traps4. Finally working out how to make it so that d**n wizard doesn't steal the spotlight all the d**n time.

The Warden sounds like an ASS, to be honest. Is it just my feeling or are we going to run into him? As soon as we get some nice gimmick, there are three ways the situation can evolve:a) we cannot go into Bleak Woodb) he's toastc) we're toast

What would interest me: how exactly did Ceres hook up with such... unlikely company?

Logged

"Captain, the buttocks are moving from the pink into the red and purple spectrum! We cannot maintain this rate of spanking any longer!"

If the Warden is an ASS, there are bigger ASSES out there. Believe me Oh and by the way: Patrols regularly frisk those inside town, Wardens Orders.

And for your last question: Two years ago a trader by the name "Syringe" (in reality his name was Hosh Syrn'Gah, but everyone just called him "Syringe") hired Bakur and Ceres as guards, and Kiph and Ralkhara as scouts. That is the way you got together. After Syringe died you considered each other family, and the life of a trader suited you all.

As for XP increase:In the CoC system you get the possibility to increase skill after you have successfully used it. 1 week of game time must pass as your character contemplates his success and at the end of that week D100 is rolled.

If the roll is HIGHER than your current skill, you gain a 1D6 increase in that skill percentage. This means it will grow more and more difficult to increase in skill as your percentages go up.

Example:Kiph successfully sneaks into the sleeping chamber of the Aural Raiders. Kiph now is eligible for increase one week later. Time passes and the group decides to stay in camp for two weeks, to rest and recuperate. Behind his screen the GM rolls against Kiph's score, which is 75, and rolls an 86. Kiph is very good and it is difficult for him to learn more about the art of sneaking, but he actually made it. He learnt something new. The GM rolls again, this time 1D6, and the result is 2. Kiph has increased 2 points in Sneak and his new score is 77.

This means you must explicitly state your intention to rest and recuperate if you want to increase in skill.

Other means to increase is through tutoring, book studies and the like. There are skill caps for how high those can take you though.

I-say! What exactly does this artifact of Radiatos look like?And while we're on the subject: What makes an artifact of Radiatos an artifact of Radiatos?And hey, have a third question: Who or what is Radiatos supposed to be!?